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06 July 2014

First pups

I guess this is what you could call the “slow season” but
that would probably only apply to rarities because we’ve definitely found
ourselves busy as of late.

Oh, THERE ARE SEAL PUPS NOW.Yes, we’ve been seeing the NORTHERN FUR SEALS ever since May
but only recently have we started to see the pups.I can hear you already “Awwww, they’re SO cute” because,
after all, they’re tiny helpless seals that call to their mothers in little high-pitched bleats.Well, they’re not.Take a
look:

Well if that wasn't one tiny GRUMPMASTER. Ok, so maybe we caught that one at a bad time. Of course, it's par for the course if it's aiming to grow up to be like dad:

Lots of folks that visit St. Paul are keen to take
photographs of the specialty seabirds.Truth be told, spending hours watching these seabirds zooming past is a
good way for us guides to learn flyby photography too.Although my gear isn’t anything special, here are both species puffins from the last couple of days, first
TUFTED PUFFIN and then HORNED PUFFIN:

The alcids continue to steal the show, at least in terms of photo ops. The CRESTED AUKLETS remain stunning:

It seems that most visitors pick the TUFTED PUFFIN as their favorite bird of the trip. This is for them:

In terms of shorebirds, we’ve had our first for-sure fall
migrants; on the beach at
Marunich, there are now up to 7 RUDDY TURNSTONES.It’s beginning!Hopefully more and more migrant shorebirds will pile into St. Paul in the coming month or two. In the meantime, we'll see a WANDERING TATTLER once in a while even though they're uncommon at this season: